Review: Perfect Prey

Perfect Prey by Helen Sarah Fields
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Perfect Prey is the second DI Callanach novel, and it is a truly amazing read. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s my favourite read of the year thus far. I came so close to giving it a five star rating – it’s one of the strongest four-point-five star ratings I have given in a long time – yet my inherent stringiness with five star ratings means tiny things prevented me from quite giving the full five stars. It was extremely close to five stars, though, I cannot deny that. Moreover, I’m positive the large percent of the population will happily hand over the full five star rating.

I’m going to be completely honest about the first book in the series, Perfect Remains, by saying I wasn’t completely happy with it. I gave it a four star rating because it won me over in the end. It wasn’t the strongest four-star rating I had ever given a book. Due to this, I wasn’t crazy excited about picking up book two. It was a case of ‘I may pick this up at some point depending upon whether it is on offer and how I am feeling at that moment in time’. It turns out that I picked up Perfect Prey much sooner than I had anticipated. Upon the release of the new Tim Weaver novel, I needed a second book for the deal in the store. I debated for a while between Perfect Prey and another book, but in the end curiosity about this one won out. The curiosity prevailed until I found myself reading it sooner than I anticipated.

Straight away I realised I was enjoying Perfect Prey so much more than I enjoyed Perfect Remains. We know the characters and their story, we know what to expect of them, and with that connection already there, it is much easier to become invested into the storyline. One of my big problems with Perfect Remains is that it took me so long to connect with the characters; but now that we have got to know them, I feel as though all the future books will be much more enjoyable. Perfect Prey demonstrates that wonderfully. Whilst there is still more to find out about the characters – we find out a decent amount throughout this novel, for example – the groundwork has been set, and we’re simply building upon what we already know to strengthen the construction. The things we get to know about the characters during this book work to win you over more, adding those layers that make reoccurring characters so much fun.

It’s not just this aspect of the story that helped me to enjoy the book so much more than I had enjoyed Perfect Remains. The development of the characters was wonderful, I cannot claim otherwise, yet the story was even better. The crime element of Perfect Remains was interesting, yet I wasn’t wholly content with the way the story played out. I found myself disappointed because we knew who the criminal was from the start. There’s just something about those kinds of stories that I dislike. I prefer the surprise element, trying to work it out myself. Thus, I was disappointed in Perfect Remains in that regard. My enjoyment of the book was lessened somewhat due to this factor. This is not the case with Perfect Prey. The book is split into two parts, and the first part of the book leaves you in the unknown, it leaves you second-guessing throughout. The second part of the book is where we start to get our answers. In the second part of the book, we’re given perspectives from the criminals, as we were in the first book, yet I did not mind such a thing because half the book had been spent building up the suspense regarding who was involved. Moreover, it wasn’t a clear cut ‘this is who it is’ throughout the second part of the book, many layers were unravelled and we got to watch as each element played into the overall complex story that had been building.

Moreover, this book does something I always love in crime novels. There is more than just one criminal story unfolding throughout. It’s wonderful when authors can seamlessly connect multiple storylines together, and such is what happens in this one. We get to watch as the many different elements of the story come together, how they all interact. If the storylines continue like this throughout the series, I’m positive all the future books will be mind-blowing. In fact, I’ve now shifted into the ‘I need the next book now’ fan base for this series. I’m no longer on the periphery, I’m centre field of the fan base, and I’m well and truly invested in this series. Perfect Prey works to demonstrate why I always prefer to give a series or author a second try – you may not be completely won over by the first book, yet the second book you read can sometimes change your view entirely.

Before I bring this lengthy review to a conclusion, I should probably give the reason why I gave this a four-point-five star rating rather than the five star rating. I know for a fact many people will roll their eyes at this, but such is the way my mind works. Without giving spoilers, during this novel DI Callanach receives an injury. I felt as though the pain and associated problems with such an injury came and went, only causing problems at moments where it would seem interesting to the storyline and was completely ignored at other moments. I know such injuries will not cause problems all of the time, but with how much damage seemed to have been done throughout, I believe there would have been more issues. Having spent extended time with people who have received similar injuries, I simply felt the damage was a convenience for certain elements of the story and wasn’t quite given the attention it could have been. I’m not saying the entire book should have focused upon his injury, I simply felt like large chunks of the story that would have been influenced by such an injury played out as though the injury wasn’t there. Like I said, it’s something most people will be fine with, but the nagging voice in the back of my mind mentioned the injury one too many times for me to ignore the issue I had.

Overall, however, this was a positively wonderful second book. This is, without a doubt, a series I’m going to be following in the future. Great things are promised, and I cannot wait to see how everything plays out.

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